Best Buy Ditches Work Time and Place
Constraints

December 11, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Best Buy Co.
is enacting an official policy that says people are free to
work wherever and whenever they want, as long as they get
their work done, BusinessWeek reports.

By the end of 2007, all 4,000 employees working at
Best Buy corporate will be part of a “results-only work
environment” (ROWE), according to the news report. The
new work environment will become an official part of Best
Buy’s recruiting pitch and orientation for new hires,
starting in February, and the company plans to rollout
its new policy to its stores – a first in the retail
environment.

The goal of ROWE is to judge performance on output
instead of hours, so under the new environment, it would
be acceptable “to take conference calls while you hunt,
collaborate from your lakeside cabin, or log on after
dinner so you can spend the afternoon with your kid,” the
BusinessWeek report said. There are no mandatory meetings
or mandated work hours under the new policy. The company
hopes ROWE will relieve stress, burnout, and high
turnover by freeing employees to make their own work-life
decisions, thereby boosting morale and
productivity.

So far, since the program’s implementation, average
voluntary turnover has fallen drastically, according to
CultureRx, a subsidiary set up by CEO Brad Anderson and
his team to help other companies go clockless. In
addition, Best Buy says productivity is up an average 35%
in departments that have switched to ROWE, and the Gallup
Organization has found that employee engagement at the
company, which measures employee satisfaction and is
often a barometer for retention, is way up too.

The initiative was started as a covert operation by
HR employees Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler, who
introduced the experiment to two division managers who
were desperate. Complaints from top performers were
threatening business continuity just as Best Buy was
rolling out its customer centricity campaign. Anderson
learned of the initiative two years after it began, and
accepted it.

The company also believes ROWE will aid in the cost
for its customer centricity campaign. Best Buy figures
the policy will reduce the need for corporate office
space, it can rent out the empty cubicles to other
companies, and use the millions of dollars in savings for
its services initiative.